The Pinnacle Perspective - The Snake Pit

The Snake Pit

This tale draws from a harrowing experience that befell my late mother and oldest brother in the 1970s.

Our family resided in a small, insidious college town in Central Missouri, where the unfortunate specter of racism was always present. It was a place where malevolence lurked in every shadow, manifesting sometimes as a subtle, passive-aggressive sneer or a gaze of pure contempt, and other times as blatant hostility—police harassment, racial slurs hurled from passing cars, or hateful graffiti defiling public spaces.

These were the daily horrors my family and friends endured, a sporadic barrage of hatred that sought to break our spirits. Yet, we remained unyielding, refusing to let ignorance and malice prevail. We stood tall, brushed off the filth of bigotry, and rose again, time after time.

Racism, that vile undercurrent, is the dark heart of this story. But don’t take my word for it—judge for yourself.

It begins like this:

Now, as I previously stated, my family and I lived in a rural setting, therefore we always enjoyed the many local outdoor activities, like hunting and fishing. This story, however, deals with a fishing trip in particular.

According to my brother George, it was him, our late mother Thresia and some family friends, Uncle Pootie Tang and his son Jerry.

At the time, “Uncle Pootie” as we called him, worked at one of the local car dealerships in town, washing cars. Well, one day, one of the regular customers of the dealership, took a liking to Pootie and started requesting him to clean up his cars exclusively.

As the time went on, and the two interacted more, naturally they started making small talk every now and then. And I’m betting the topic of fishing came up during one of their conversations. The man told Uncle Pootie that he owned a large farm on some land a few miles outside of town and that he was welcomed to fish out there at one of his ponds sometime if he wanted.

Pootie told my mom about it and knowing how my mother loved to fish it was a no-brainer that she agreed if she could bring along my brother George. Pootie also had a son named Jerry, who was around my brother’s age, so it sounded like a fun time for everyone involved.

From what my mother and brother told me, this all took place on an extremely sweltering summer day.

Once they got out there, everything seemed normal for the most part. There was a big farmhouse on some land out in the country, with chickens, cows, and horses off in the pastures, and from what they told me nothing appeared out of the ordinary, ….at least not then.

So, they proceeded to unload their fishing gear and head over to one of his ponds off in one of the nearby pastures.

As time went on, the fish started biting, and everyone started reeling in a fish almost with each catch. The day seemed like it was going well. The sun was shining in the big blue sky, the fish were biting, it was all good.

After a while, my mother and my brother looked around and started noticing something strange. According to them, they started noticing that snakes began to appear in the water all the sudden.

Now, Cousin Jerry, had brought his .22 LR rifle along with him, as his dad had just got it for him the past Christmas. My older brother was a little younger, so he didn’t have a .22, all he had was a high-powered pellet rifle, that he was a crack-shot with.

At first, my brother and Jerry were kind of just messing around and shooting at the random turtles and snakes near the bank of the pond. But then, they started noticing more and more snakes too!

And from what my family told me, these snakes were not “water snakes” which are non-venomous but appear like they are. No, the snakes that started to appear in large numbers in that pond were what we call “water mocassins”. Also, known as “Cottonmouths,” these are venomous snakes that are indigenous to Missouri and Arkansas. One thing about water moccasins is that they are semi-aquatic, which means they can live on land and in water.

According to Google, their venom is potent. Anyone who suspects they have been bitten should seek medial attention immediately. Symptoms are usually limited to pain and swelling of the affected area, but it may take a few weeks to make a full recovery.

In general, most of the snakes in Missouri are non-venomous if they are cornered, but they will strike in their defense, but they mostly avoid people.

Tangent Over, Now Back to the story

From what my brother told me, that after our mother and Uncle Pootie recognized what was going on, and what they were dealing with, they instantly shouted “Grab your stuff, Let’s get the hell outta here Now!”

My brother said that snakes started appearing everywhere they looked, in the water, on the bank, in the tall grass.

 He told me that there were some trees near the pond, and they even noticed snakes were slithering all over them.

There was a path that led to the water from the gate. They all got on it and started running as fast as they could towards the car, dipping and dodging the massive amounts of venomous snakes that were all over the place!

According to him, they basically had to shoot their way out of there.

By God’s grace, they were all able to make it back to their vehicle with no one being bitten by the snakes. They all hugged and thanked the Lord for allowing them to make it out of there safe.

At that moment, Uncle Pootie was extremely pissed, he instantly marched up to the owner’s house, walked up on the porch and started banging on the door shouting “Hey, bring your ass out here now!” “You dirty Son-of-a-bitch!”

After a few seconds went by, the door opened and the man appeared and Uncle Pootie let him have it, well verbally at least. I’m sure he wanted to break his foot off in that old dude’s ass but that would not have ended well for him, so a nice cussing out sufficed instead.

I am sure Uncle Pootie never dealt with that man ever again after that, let alone wash his car.

I remember my brother telling me that they were all traumatized and were all in disbelief as to what they had just experienced. Did the man not know that one of his ponds was totally infested with snakes? Was he luring them into a trap, a real-life snake pit? Did he think it was funny that, they almost died? Did he even care? Was this a cruel racist joke that he was playing?

My brother said all those questions and few more have always ran through his mind about the events of that strange day.

As I stated earlier, you be the judge on whether the old man had ill intentions or not when he invited them out to there to fish.

In my opinion, I think the man, did it be wicked for whatever reason. I mean come on, there is no way in hell that he did not know that one of his ponds was a damn snake pit! He knew, he just didn’t care.

Be safe out there, and always question when someone offers you something for nothing. Life is funny sometimes; you just don’t want it laughing at you!

Happy Halloween folks!

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